Producers of fruit pastes and other bakery fillings normally manufacture these pastes in a pumpable form using hot processing techniques. Such techniques are required especially for high solids pastes such as over 60-65% solids. Most commercial fruit pastes are of the high solids type. To produce such pastes or fillings with a high solids content, the standard technique involves heating the liquid phase and the resulting paste for the purposes of stabilizing the filling or paste so that it is oven stable or bake stable for subsequent use in a baking environment. It has been conventional wisdom that such hot processing of fruit paste to produce an oven stable or bake stable ingredient results in the best quality and a product with a superior shelf life. However, the food industry has developed an alternative process for preparing food items known as a cold process technology, which does not require the addition of any significant heat in manufacturing the end product. There are several obvious reasons why the food industry has attempted to employ a cold process technology. The addition of heat to the process, in the form of steam or electricity, requires a substantial input of energy, which is expensive. In high solids materials, i.e. above 60-65% solids, heating of the product during processing requires a substantial amount of time. Thus, time necessary for producing the product, such as a food paste, is increased when using a hot processing technique. In addition, some food products, such as fruit paste used in bakery products lose some of their fresh taste characteristics by long time exposure to heat before the baking operation. Some products take on the characteristics of a cooked fruit product, when a natural or uncooked physical property is required for the end product. Fruit pastes, and other food products, which have added flavoring and color pigmentation to enhance the taste and appearance of the end product have these characteristics diminished by using the hot processing technique. In most instances, fruit pastes, fillings and other similar products are to be stored and shipped for subsequent use. Consequently, they must be cooled prior to packing and then reconstituted to the desired characteristics of the fruit product at the bakery. This added process operation increases the processing time and increases the equipment required for producing a bake stable fruit paste. When the paste is cooled subsequent to a hot processing operation and prior to packing for storage and shipment, added time and equipment are required. This expense is not justified by enhanced characteristics of the paste.
There is an effort under way to produce fruit based paste for bakery applications using a cold process technology. Since the most important function of the fruit paste produced by the cold process technology is the bake stability of the paste, the cold process technology must produce a product that can withstand temperatures of a baking operation without negatively affecting the baked product. The cold process technology must be designed to control the spread of the filling or paste as it is heated. In the past, it has been recognized that the oven stability or bake stable characteristic of the fruit paste or filling is affected by the stabilizer used in the paste or filling and the amount of solids in the paste or filling. The stabilizer for the high solids paste or fillings, which could be used in the cold processing technology, was alginates. When using alginates for a stabilizer in the cold process technology, the fruit paste or filling formed into a gel which was somewhat chunky. This was especially true at high solids levels. The gel matrix using an alginate inhibited heat transfer through the filling or paste to increase bake stability; however, alginate gels did have the limitation of being chunky and unable to exhibit a creamy texture or a controlled texture for the filling or paste. The final texture of the paste was not controllable and was always chunky. Indeed, the alginate gels could form properly in only acid environments, which somewhat limited the taste or flavor constituents which could be used in the filling or paste. Such cold processes could not be used for chocolate or carmel which does not have the acid characteristics of a fruit based filling or paste.
At this time the commercial cold process for fruit based fillings and paste involves the use of alginate stabilizer, which forms a chunky constituency caused by a gel structure. Consequently, there can be no control over the texture and consistency of the end product. The consistency and texture of the end product, when using cold processing for a fruit filling or paste, is dictated by the alginate gel characteristics, which are not completely satisfactory even though they can be used when the fruit filling is to be baked within the confines of a dough structure. This prior fruit paste was used as the internal filling for a fruit bar. There is no cold process that has the ability to adjust the texture and consistency of a filling or paste that is bake stable at high solids content and that can be used for both acid and neutral pastes. Consequently, the cold process technology with its economic advantages, is seriously limited when applied to oven stable or bake stable fillings or paste used as fillings or toppings for baked products, especially when the paste or filling must have a high solids content. Such high solids pastes have high corn syrup and high levels of fruit and are normally used in quality baked products.